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Array
(
[sid] => 167833
[catid] => 1
[aid] => mick
[title] => THE TRUCK DRIVER
[time] => 2011-10-14 07:12:13
[hometext] => A True Short Story
[bodytext] => During my career as the owner of a Private Investigative Agency in the State of Florida, one of my clients was the United States Post Office. I had been contacted by the Risk Management Officer in the Postmaster’s Office of a centrally located city in the state of Florida. Their request of me was for me to set up early at a court hearing where a disabled claimant and former employee was scheduled to testify about his medical condition, which the Post Office was contesting. From there I was instructed to stay with the subject until he bedded down for the night and report his activity level to the Postmaster .They had received a number of anonymous calls suggesting that the claimant, whom I’ll call Joseph, was in fact much more capable and active than he was leading his former employers to believe. I arrived early at the Federal Courthouse in Orlando and waited for the arrival of the Claimant. Moments after my arrival, he and his wife arrived early as well. I began videotaping immediately from a secure covert position when I identified his vehicle from his Florida records. I observed Joseph and his wife exit the white Ford F250 XLT pickup truck. He was wearing a white plastic back brace and was using 2 four pronged canes to walk with. He was bent over slightly at the waist and was walking very slowly and his face was observed grimacing as if in considerable pain. So far, I was not seeing anything to counter his claims of injury and it was not my intent to do so. I as always was intent on uncovering the truth and nothing else about his activity levels on the days my investigation’s occurred. I went on ahead of Joseph, and from an alternate entrance to the courthouse I took up a position where I could observe the proceedings without being observed by him. I was also wearing a disguise. During the hearing, the claimant Joseph, maintained how he was totally unable to do a single thing since his accident several years ago where he was found at fault while driving a Post Office Semi that hit a civilian’s car and killed him. Those events cost the Postal Service well over a Million Dollars and the costs were still rising due to Joseph’s claims. I quietly left the courtroom and set up back in the parking lot to await Joseph’s return to his vehicle. He came out the same way, bent over at a 45 degree angle, shuffling his feet slowly while using the canes and looking truly like a man in extreme pain. His wife was driving the truck upon leaving the area just like she had been doing upon their arrival earlier. My mobile surveillance was heading to some unknown destination but I began taking the proper measures to avoid being detected by them. It was approximately an hour later and on US 27, well South and East of Orlando when we drove into a violent thunderstorm. I observed the claimant’s pickup truck pull off of the highway and onto it’s shoulder into the grass. I assumed they were experiencing difficulty with their vehicle. I could hardly believe it when I saw both individuals exit the truck in the rain and run to the passenger side of their truck. I pulled over well behind them and using a high powered video lens recorded the following: Both individuals dropped their pants and began urinating in the grass, him standing, her squatting; him taking off his back brace and throwing it to his wife, standing upright and running back toward the truck without canes, and as they reentered the truck and drove away. It should be noted that Joseph was now the driver of the vehicle. From this point on, his wife was never observed driving it again and I never saw the claimant using either his back brace nor his canes. I followed the claimant to the east coast of Florida where for the next three days I observed Joseph arriving at and registering at a Hilton Hotel on Melbourne Beach, lifting and carrying a full large ice chest from the back of his pickup truck and carrying it approximately 50 yards from the parking lot to the entrance to the hotel, setting the chest down and standing upright briskly after setting the chest down at the hotel’s service desk, lifting his wife up off the ground and spinning her around several times in some type of apparent celebration, and as he walked to his room on the 4th floor. While at the desk, and using a suitable pretext and disguise I approached the claimant and bent over and picked up one end of his ice chest and said “Here, let me help you carry that to the elevator!” And so he did and gave me his thanks. The weight of the ice chest I would estimate to have been well over 100 pounds. I also took a room in the hotel right across from Joseph’s room so I could hear his door opening and closing should they depart the room. I woke up well before sunrise and proceeded to my vehicle in the parking lot to await the claimant’s departure from the area. At about 7:30 a.m. Joseph and his wife exited the Hotel and Joseph carried the ice chest while his wife carried their luggage. After placing those objects in the bed of the truck, they departed from the area, with Joseph driving. Joseph drove from Melbourne, Florida to the Cape kennedy area where I assumed they were going to look at the Space Shuttle which was visible on a launchpad. But just to the north side of the Space Center was a small Nude Beach called Play A Linda Beach. I observed and videotaped the claimant and his wife as they disrobed and walked over several high sand dunes to get to the beach itself where after a long walk toward a very secluded area, they set out a blanket and laid down on it. With my high powered lens, I recorded them constantly looking around the area as if to ensure they were alone. They then began having sex in public with him on top having no apparent injury related back problems, and eventually finishing with her on top. (This was the second time I had observed couples making love on the beach. The other time was another case I had worked where the claimant had travelled 75 miles to Fort Desoto Beach near the famous Sunshine Skyway Bridge). From there, Joseph and his wife, (with Joseph driving), drove to Daytona Beach to a souvenir shop, and from there drove to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and eventually Miami, where he appeared to just be enjoying the scenery. When he got back to the Melbourne area, he stopped at a private residence located inside of a retirement Mobile Home Park and entered the residence. He was at that location for about 5 hours and it was midnight when he finally left the residence. I followed him as he drove his truck all the way to his own home in the city of Lakeland, Florida. Because it was so dark, I pulled away from the surveillance and proceeded to my office to complete my report. Approximately two months later I was subpoenaed to a hearing at the Federal Courthouse in Orlando pertaining to this case. The claimant was overheard telling the judge, “Judge, my quality of life is so diminished that I can’t pull myself out of bed and I am in so much pain that I can’t walk without these crutches and back brace. I have been totally unable to get behind the wheel of any vehicle and drive for the past several years, and I can’t even make love to my wife!” “So that is why I am asking for a settlement from my Insurance Company, so I can at least support my wife for I can no longer work.” The Judge then told the claimant, “Thank You sir, you may step down, and would Robert Burns please step up here and be sworn in! ” I did as told, and the claimant looked perplexed as if to wonder just where he’d seen me before. I must have looked familiar to him. The Judge Continued, “Mr. Burns, it is your report before me today that you followed the claimant for over 48 hours in which you observed him driving, traveling over 775 miles in that time frame, Correct?” Before I could answer the claimant stood up and yelled, “Your Honor, he’s lying! No one in the world would have been able to follow me for 10 miles much less 775 miles without me being able to spot him. I made my living as a professional truck driver, and I was constantly alert to what was going on around me and even behind me!” “This man is obviously lying and a stooge of the Insurance Company!” The judge ordered Joseph to sit down and keep quiet. The next words from the Judge were “Mr. Burns, do you still have custody of the evidence in this case which I believe is a videotape?” “Yes Your Honor” I said. Joseph's mouth fell wide open while he shook his head. The video was placed into a VCR unit in the Courtroom and the first thing the claimant saw was of him and his wife taking a whiz on the highway in the rain and of him discarding his back brace once and for all. When the video reached the part where he and his wife shed their clothes on Play A Linda nudist beach, the claimant stood and pleaded with the judge saying simply “Enough, Enough, Please Stop” after his wife had been crying uncontrollably beside him. The judge then looked into the courtroom and asked a man who had been sitting there quietly, “Mr. Federal Prosecutor, do you wish my Bailiff to take this man into custody for defrauding the Federal Government?” He said, absolutely Your Honor!” The next thing I heard was the Bailiff telling Joseph that he was under arrest and he began to read him his Miranda Rights. The judge then thanked me and dismissed me from the courthouse. I never heard from my client after that other than their sincere gratitude for possibly saving them many millions of dollars. The moral of this story is “It doesn’t pay to play with Uncle Sam!” By: Robert Edgar Burns [comments] => 1 [counter] => 86 [topic] => 31 [informant] => robert_edgar_burns [notes] => [ihome] => 0 [alanguage] => [acomm] => 0 [haspoll] => 0 [pollID] => 0 [score] => 0 [ratings] => 0 [editpoem] => 1 [associated] => [topicname] => StoryPoetry )
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